The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says the FFAW-Unifor is playing its usual smoke and mirrors with regards to a report released this afternoon by the province’s Labour Relations Board.

The report — prepared by the Board’s investigator into FISH-NL’s Dec. 30, 2016 application for certification — includes information on the number of people who paid FFAW-Unifor union dues in 2015 and 2016.

FISH-NL takes the stand that just because a person had dues deducted from a fish sale does not make them a bonafide, full-time, boots-on-a-deck inshore harvester for purposes of a certification vote.

“For example, if a person worked as an electrician’s helper for an afternoon — and they got paid for that afternoon with dues taken out of their cheque never to work in that field again — does that make them an electrician? The answer is no, of course not,” said Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL.

“Many of these are paper names and paper numbers,” he added. “FISH-NL is confident that once the definition of a true inshore harvester is applied to the FFAW-Unfior’s list their numbers will be shown to be overstated by thousands.”

FISH-NL has until Wednesday, April 25th, to formally respond to the investigator’s report.